


Little Red Riding Hood and Variants

by MyOwnSuperintendent



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Gen, Revisionist Fairy Tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-26
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-12-09 14:24:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/775223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyOwnSuperintendent/pseuds/MyOwnSuperintendent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An excerpt from a scholarly work on Westerosi fairy tales, published approximately 1500 years after the events of the series.  This selection focuses on the story of "Little Red Riding Hood," paying particular attention to the version told in the Vale, which tells of how Little Red Riding Hood took fate into her own hands to defeat a predatory beast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Red Riding Hood and Variants

**Author's Note:**

> This story is based on "Little Red Riding Hood." The excerpts from the story are based on Charles Perrault's version, which I found translated here: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0333.html  
> I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire or "Little Red Riding Hood" or anything related to them.  
> Hope you enjoy!

“ _Little Red Riding Hood_ and Variants”

(From Waters, Jeyne. _Fairy Tales of Westeros: A Survey_. King’s Landing: Three Dragons Publishing, 1828. Print.)

The story of _Little Red Riding Hood_ , in its various versions, is surely one of the most well-known and popular fairy tales in Westeros. The earliest known variant of the story seems to be that of the North, which has been told from the days of Aegon’s Landing. It goes as follows:

_Once upon a time there lived in a certain Northern village a peasant maid, the prettiest creature who was ever seen. The maid always wore a red riding hood, and it suited her so extremely well that everybody called her Little Red Riding Hood._

_One day her mother gave her some cakes and sent her to take them to her ill grandmother, who lived on the other side of a small wood. Before she left, her mother warned her against talking to strangers. While walking through the woods, Little Red Riding Hood met a wolf, who looked at her and immediately desired to eat her. He asked her where she was going, and the maid, thinking that he seemed harmless enough, told him that she was going to visit her grandmother in the cottage on the other side of the woods. Upon hearing this, the wolf ran off to take a shorter path that he knew of and arrived at the grandmother’s cottage before Little Red Riding Hood did. He knocked at the door, and the grandmother, who was lying in bed, said, “Who’s there?”_

_“It is your granddaughter,” the wolf replied, trying to make his voice sound soft and sweet. When the grandmother told him to come in, the wolf immediately sprang inside and devoured her in two mouthfuls. He then put on her nightgown and lay in the bed, waiting for Little Red Riding Hood._

_Little Red Riding Hood soon arrived and knocked on the door. “Who’s there?” cried the wolf._

_Little Red Riding Hood was at first startled by the wolf’s deep voice, but, believing that it was because her grandmother was ill, she answered, “It’s Little Red Riding Hood, grandmother. I have brought you some cakes.”_

_"Come in, my dear,” the wolf called, again trying to make his voice sound soft and sweet. When Little Red Riding Hood came in, the wolf said to her, “Put down the cakes, my dear, and come get into the bed with me.”_

_Little Red Riding Hood took off her clothes and got into the bed. Looking at the wolf and believing him to be her grandmother, she said, "Grandmother, what big arms you have!"_

_"All the better to hug you with, my dear."_

_"Grandmother, what big ears you have!"_

_"All the better to hear you with, my dear."_

_"Grandmother, what big eyes you have!"_

_"All the better to see you with, my dear."_

_"Grandmother, what big teeth you have!"_

_"All the better to eat you with, my dear!"_

_And with that the wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood and ate her all up._

The meaning behind this fairly straightforward tale seems clear: it is a plain warning to young women against men who will take sexual advantage of them. The wolf’s devouring of Little Red Riding Hood represents her loss of virginity, possibly through rape, a loss that is presented as the ultimate downfall. Notably, the onus of avoiding this is placed on the women rather than on the men, with Little Red Riding Hood presented as foolish and heedless of her mother’s warning when she decides to talk to the wolf. While later versions include a huntsman who rescues the girl, either before she is eaten or by cutting her from the wolf’s stomach, this and other early versions do not, heavily stressing the idea that virginity is something to be guarded and not something that can be regained. The description of the girl as a peasant and the choice of the wolf as the predator add a new layer to this warning. With the Starks, whose sigil was the direwolf, as the ruling house of the North at the time when the story was first told, the caution is not about men and women in general. It is rather a caution to peasant women against the possible abuses of noblemen, whom they could never marry but who were not above using them sexually.

This same message appears in the regional variants of the story that sprang up throughout Westeros soon afterwards. Some are virtually identical to the Northern story, with only the identity of the predator changed: in the Westerlands, the story is told with the Lannister lion, in the Iron Islands with the Greyjoy kraken, and in the Crownlands with the Targaryen dragon. In the Riverlands, the girl is pursued by a large trout, the sigil of House Tully, which somehow manages to survive out of water long enough to impersonate her grandmother and to devour her (the rather ludicrous nature of this version perhaps accounts for the tale’s lack of popularity in the region). The Stormlands variant is also quite similar, although Little Red Riding Hood is gored rather than eaten by the Baratheon stag.

The versions of the story from Dorne and from the Reach deviate further from this original pattern, due to the nature of the sigils of the ruling houses of these regions. In Dorne, ruled by House Martell whose sigil was the sun and spear, the story goes as follows:

_Once upon a time there lived in a certain Dornish village a peasant maid, the prettiest creature who was ever seen. The maid always wore a red riding hood, and it suited her so extremely well that everybody called her Little Red Riding Hood._

_One day her mother gave her some cakes and sent her to take them to her ill grandmother, who lived on the other side of a small mountain pass. Before she left, her mother warned her against talking to strangers. While walking through the pass, Little Red Riding Hood met the sun, who looked at her and immediately desired to burn her up with his rays. He asked her where she was going, and the maid, dazzled by him, told him that she was going to visit her grandmother in the cottage on the other side of the pass. Upon hearing this, the sun immediately allowed his rays to shine in the door of the grandmother’s cottage. Seeing the light come into her home, the grandmother, who was lying in bed, said, “Who’s there?”_

_“It is your granddaughter,” the sun replied. When the grandmother told him to come in, the sun immediately shone through the door and burned her in her bed. He then waited in the cottage for Little Red Riding Hood._

_Little Red Riding Hood soon arrived and knocked on the door. “Who’s there?” cried the sun._

_Little Red Riding Hood answered, “It’s Little Red Riding Hood, grandmother. I have brought you some cakes.”_

_“Come in, my dear,” the sun called. When Little Red Riding Hood came in, she could see nothing but the brightness of the sun, nearly blinding her. "Grandmother,” she cried, “how bright it is in here!"_

_"All the better to see you with, my dear."_

_"Grandmother, how hot it is in here!"_

_"All the better to burn you with, my dear!"_

_And with that the wicked sun fell upon Little Red Riding Hood and burned her all up._

Although it works well enough in terms of symbolism, this version’s presentation of the sun as a source of evil creates some practical problems. Unlike the predators in the other stories, the sun is in fact vital for human life, and it cannot very well be avoided. Because of these complications, as well as Dorne’s relative isolation from the rest of Westeros, _Little Red Riding Hood_ is, to this day, far less popular in Dorne than it is anywhere else in the Seven Kingdoms.

In the Reach, by contrast, the story is very popular. It takes its predator from the Tyrell sigil of the rose and goes as follows:

_Once upon a time there lived in a certain village of the Reach a peasant maid, the prettiest creature who was ever seen. The maid always wore a red riding hood, and it suited her so extremely well that everybody called her Little Red Riding Hood._

_One day her mother gave her some cakes and sent her to take them to her ill grandmother, who lived on the other side of a small wood. Before she left, her mother warned her against talking to strangers. While walking through the woods, Little Red Riding Hood stopped to look at the many roses that grew along the path. The largest and finest of the roses suddenly spoke to her. “Where are you going, my pretty maiden?”_

_The maid was surprised to hear the flower speak, but, impressed by his beauty, she told him that she was going to visit her grandmother in the cottage on the other side of the woods. “That is not far,” the rose said. “You have plenty of time. Why not pick some roses for her?”_

_Little Red Riding Hood thought that this was a fine idea, and she began to pick small roses for her grandmother. When she had gathered a bouquet, she bade the largest rose goodbye. “Goodbye?” the rose said. “But you must pick me too.”_

_“Won’t it hurt you?” the maid asked._

_“Hurt me? Not in the slightest,” said the rose. “I ache to be picked by you.”_

_Little Red Riding Hood hesitated to pick a talking rose, but she could not avoid seeing the flower’s attractions. “How big and red you are!” she said._

_“The better to brighten your grandmother’s room, my dear,” said the rose._

_“And how sweet-smelling you are!”_

_“The better to drive away the odors of sickness, my dear.”_

_This decided Little Red Riding Hood, and she reached out and grasped the rose’s stem. “But what sharp thorns you have!” she cried._

_“The better to prick you with, my dear!”_

_And with that, the wicked rose pricked Little Red Riding Hood’s finger so hard that she bled to death._

Scholars and casual readers alike agree that the loss of virginity imagery in the Reach’s version of the tale is particularly graphic and explicit. This perhaps relates to the region’s historically strong emphasis on chivalry and courtly roles, a system which placed great importance on women’s purity.

By far the most unusual version of _Little Red Riding Hood_ , however, is that which originated in the Vale in the fourth century AL. Although older versions in which the predator is the Arryn falcon survive, these versions are almost never told, while the following story is now common not only in the Vale itself but throughout Westeros. While it retains many elements of the traditional _Little Red Riding Hood_ tale—the red-hooded girl, the grandmother, the predatory beast, the litany of physical traits—and is surely similar enough to be classed as a variant, in many ways it is almost its own story.

_Once upon a time there was a beautiful young maid. She always wore a red riding hood that her mother had handed down to her, and it suited her so extremely well that everybody called her Little Red Riding Hood._

_One day, it became necessary for Little Red Riding Hood to leave her home and go to stay at her grandmother’s house, which was hidden among the mountains. On the way, she was followed by a beast, who attempted to gain her trust. Little Red Riding Hood was not sure whether to grant him this trust, however, having learned much of the ways of beasts. In the end, she decided to allow the beast to travel with her, hoping that she would be well protected from danger at her grandmother’s._

_Once they arrived at her home, Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother warmly welcomed the beast. “He is a friend,” she told Little Red Riding Hood, “and we will all live here together. The two of us will look after you.”_

_“You had better give us your hood to look after as well,” the beast added. “We will keep that safe.” Although Little Red Riding Hood was loath to give the hood up, her grandmother urged her to do as the beast said, and so she handed it over to him._

_The three lived together for some time until the maid awoke one day to find that her grandmother had disappeared. “Where is my grandmother?” she asked the beast. With horror, she noticed the blood on his mouth. “What has happened? Why is there blood on your mouth?”_

_The beast replied, “She was eaten by a savage animal. I tried to stop it but could not.” He looked at the maid sadly, and she simply stared back at him. “You and I must look after each other now,” the beast continued. “Don’t worry about anything, my dear. Haven’t I always been a friend to you?”_

_The maid did not know whether she could believe the beast sincere, but neither did she know what she could do to escape from him. She did not even know what he had done with her hood, which she always wore whenever she made a journey. And so she stayed in her grandmother’s home with him._

_As the days and months went by, the beast continued to profess himself a friend to the maid, yet she still did not know whether she could truly trust him. By day, he prowled outside their home, claiming that he was protecting her from savage animals like the one that had eaten her grandmother. The maid herself, however, never saw a single one of these animals, which he claimed were all around them. “Do they truly exist?” she asked herself. “Did one of them truly eat my grandmother? Or was it the beast himself all along?”_

_It was not these doubts, however, that left the maid most truly suspicious of the beast. It was the way he spoke. In the evenings, as they sat together by the fireplace, the beast would begin to praise her beauty. “What fair skin you have, my dear,” he would say. “What blue eyes you have. What lovely long red hair.” The way the beast looked at her as he said these things frightened the maid, and after she awoke one morning to find him staring at her and licking his jowls, she began to bolt her door as she slept._

_“He must have eaten my grandmother,” she told herself. “He wishes to eat me too. What am I to do?” The maid knew that she only had a chance of escaping from the beast if he did not know that she suspected anything. So she behaved towards him more warmly than before, acting as though she enjoyed his words of praise and as though she considered him a sincere friend, while she tried to plan her escape._

_Meanwhile, in the same kingdom, there lived a brave and strong huntswoman. This huntswoman came to hear that there was a house where a wolf lived hidden among the mountains, and she determined to find the house and kill the wolf in order to make the kingdom safe. So she gathered up her weapons and began her search._

_The huntswoman searched for many months, for the house was well-hidden and the people of the surrounding villages gave her little help. She worried that the wolf might kill many innocents before she arrived. At last, however, the huntswoman happened upon a small house set back among some trees. There were clear signs of a struggle—blood spotted the steps, and the sound of howls came from the house. Fearing that she might be too late, the huntswoman drew her knife and ran inside._

_The sight that met her eyes surprised her. There was a fearsome beast in the house, yes, but he lay dying upon the floor, a short knife in his chest. Standing over him was a young and lovely maid, one who wore a red riding hood._

_“Did you kill the wolf?” the huntswoman asked._

_Little Red Riding Hood shook her head. “You don’t understand,” she said. “I killed the beast. I_ am _the wolf.”_

This variant of the story provides much food for thought. The first matter to consider is the reason behind the large differences between this version and the others. While scholars have speculated that some of this version may have been inspired by true events, specifically some mysterious deaths that occurred in the Vale in the early fourth century, there are no reliable historical sources describing them, nor is it clear how they came to be merged with _Little Red Riding Hood_. There is still much to examine and study, however, in the text of the tale itself.

There are many differences between this story and the other versions of _Little Red Riding Hood_ , but they can be summed up in one general effect: while most versions portray the girl solely as a foolish victim of a male sexual predator, the story from the Vale sends a strong message of female power. Even before she takes her fate into her own hands and kills the beast, this Little Red Riding Hood is an aware and thoughtful young woman: she knows “much of the ways of beasts,” and she regularly considers her predator’s motivations and whether he is someone she can trust. Furthermore, she is canny, biding her time and adjusting her own behavior in deciding how best to deal with the beast. Perhaps most strikingly, this version places no blame on Little Red Riding Hood for the beast’s predation: she is presented as a girl trapped in a difficult situation, rather than as a heedless fool.

It is not solely Little Red Riding Hood who represents female power in this version. This story adds the detail that the hood is one “that her mother had handed down to her.” The power in this female artifact seems tied to her ability to take action against her predator: the beast takes it from her and leaves her trapped, but she has regained it when she kills him at the story’s conclusion. We also have the admirable figure of the huntswoman, who is described as “brave and strong” and whose actions appear motivated solely by a desire to do good and to help others. This is believed to be the earliest version of _Little Red Riding Hood_ that includes any sort of hunter figure, and it is the only known version in which the figure is female. Because of this version’s strong emphasis of female power, it has been an inspiration for much feminist criticism (including the central chapter in Holly Crane’s seminal _Teeth, Thorns, and Knives: Woman as Victor and Victim in Westerosi Folklore_ ), as well as several revisionist novels, most prominently Elizabeth Frey’s bestselling _The Wolf Girl and the Huntswoman_.

Perhaps the most striking feature of this version of _Little Red Riding Hood_ is its final line: “I _am_ the wolf.” Scholars and readers have puzzled over its meaning for years without reaching any single conclusion. Yet there is a general consensus that Little Red Riding Hood is challenging the role into which her predator attempts to place her. She also challenges other versions of the tale, declaring that the traditional ending is not the only one—that she, too, can be powerful and feared.


End file.
